Tabletop Game / Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game

Due to this work's general post-canon nature, all spoilers are unmarked up to the ends of Shadow of Kyoshi, Imbalance and Ruins Of The Empire. You Have Been Warned.

Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game is a tabletop roleplaying game produced by Magpie Games and set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, in which heroes from the four nations are roleplayed, fighting for what is right in a complicated and nuanced world. A Kickstarter was launched on August 3, 2021, to serve as a pre-order mechanism, and ran until September 2, 2021, having raised over $9.5 million.

The Quickstart for the game was released free of charge on July 12, 2021. It contains rules for character generation, storytelling systems, and a pre-generated campaign, The Forbidden Scroll. A digital version of the game's Core Book was released in batches beginning on February 24, 2022, with additional content gradually following afterward. Physical products started being shipped on December 2022 for Kickstarter backers and was released on January 25, 2023 for the public.The game is lead designed by Brendan Conway, and is built on the Powered by the Apocalypse framework. It was financed through a crowdfunding campaign, which raised US$9.53 M.

Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, a compilation of adventure booklets, plus four new playbooks and a series of statblocks for NPC legends was released digitally on March 17, 2022.

The core book gives fives different eras of the world as possible campaign settings:

• The Kyoshi Era: Set after the events of The Shadow of Kyoshi. It lends itself to stories of revenge, betrayal, justice and inner turmoil.
• The Roku Era: Detailing the time between the coronation of Fire Lord Sozin and Avatar Roku's wedding, lending itself to themes of alliances, politics and preserving a fragile peace.
• The Hundred Year War Era: Taking place shortly before the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Campaigns may include themes of war, survival and hope.
• The Aang Era: Set after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender – Imbalance, detailing stories of healing, coexistence and technological advancement.
• The Korra Era: Taking place after The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire, this Era lends itself to stories of redemption, leadership and the conflict between technology and tradition.

The core element of the system's character creation are so-called "Playbooks", which lay out a character's role within their group and the setting, as well as a certain inner conflict, represented by two opposing principles a character holds, with their current outlook represented by the balance between these principles. The game ties roleplay and mechanics together with these balance, as there are tangible effects that influence a character's balance and are influenced by it.

"Classes" are replaced by "Trainings", which include the four bending styles, as well as weapon fighting and technology. Within such a training, players may select and use advanced techniques. The character's skill with such a technique progresses through a level system, consisting of learned, practiced and mastered, with each level granting greater ease of use for that technique.

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Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game contains examples of:

Tropes in general

General

• An Adventurer Is You: Options at character creation include: Playbook (a sort of Chraracter-Archetype), training (the four bending-arts, weapon-fighting and technology) and a more general background (up to two from Military, Monastic, Outlaw, Privileged, Urban and Wilderness).
• Badass Normal: Characters who are non-benders can be as powerful as benders, from a mechanical standpoint.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: The Weapons-training specifies that a character doesn't actually need to use weapons for its techniques, and one of the suggested fighting styles is even Ty Lee's chi-blocking.
• Big Good: An era's corresponding Avatar (or Iroh for the Hundred Years War) is specifically meant to be a powerful actor on the fringes of a campaign, maybe acting as a Quest Giver to the players or The Cavalry in an emergency. Their principles also align with one of their era's Central Themes.
• Cast From Hitpoints: Mixed with Cast from Stamina. The closest thing the game has to classical hitpoints is the Fatigue bar. Characters must "mark fatigue" both to use most techniques in the game, as well as a result of being hit ^note although they may instead mark a condition . Although a fully marked fatigue does not knock a character out. This is done instead by getting five conditions.
• Central Theme: The different eras and their conflicts lend themselves to the exploration of different themes.
• Continuity Cameo: Bringing in canon characters from the shows and books is an option for GMs, but it's recommended to restrict them to cameos if they're allied with the PCs, since with their knowledge and skillsets, they could handle a lot of an adventure's crises without the need for PC intervention.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Bloodbending is treated as such by the game mechanics, with PCs having to mark a condition - representing negative emotional states - the first three times they use it. Even the extremist Adamant isn't immune to this.
• Elemental Powers: Naturally, given the setting.
• Evil Mentor: The characters listed in Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide as possible mentors include Long Feng and even Azula!
• The Hero: Player Characters are fundamentally meant to be heroic, whether they are AllLovingHeroes or Jerks With A Heart Of Gold.
• Heroic BSoD: Shifting a PC's balance past the limits of their balance track will cause them to break down mentally and/or emotionally. Depending on the character and their circumstances, they can either lose the will to fight and just submit to their current foe, violently lose control of themself, or flee the scene after doing something drastic and harmful.
• Magic Knight: Characters can learn techniques from different trainings (as long as only one of them is a bending-style), allowing for a character to use both bending- and weapon-techniques. A character who fights unarmed may be a Kung-Fu Wizard.
• Mentor Archetype: In order to learn new techniques, characters must find a willing teacher (usually an NPC) in order for them to learn a new technique (there are even rules on specific things a character may need to do to finish this training).
• Nun Too Holy: Any character who combines the Monastic and Outlaw Backgrounds, maybe even with the Rogue Playbook.
• Promoted to Playable: The Core Rulebook notes that, while the rules are written with the assumption the companions will be original characters, players can take on the roles of canonical characters such as Zuko or Tenzin as long as everyone in the group approves.
  • The Rulebook also heavily discourages playing as the Avatar, but never outright states that doing so is against the rules. The book never explains how one could theoretically play an Avatar, but it's a simple matter to allow a character to select all the Bending Trainings and fluff their Moment of Balance as their Avatar State taking over.
• Restricted Expanded Universe: Should a game session strictly adhere to canon, players will limited in their choices. For example, some of the listed techniques haven't been invented yet during some eras a game could be set in (e.g. Metalbending, Bloodbending, Aang's Air Scooter etc.). Secondly, one can't play an Airbender during both the Hundred Year War and the Aang Era. And thirdly, a lot of villains during the Hundred Year War, such as Ozai, Zhao, or Long Feng, are bound to remain Greater Scope Villains due to their defeats being part of the show.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the corebook section about character names, gemstone names are presented as an option for Earth Kingdom character names, with Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl serving as examples.
  • The Republic City supplement features a pre-made adventure based around illegal street racing. The name of it? The Quick and the Quarrelsome.
• Training Montage: Characters actually learn new techniques by finding a teacher and training with them. This involves a roll determining how successful the training is.

Tropes for the specific eras

The Kyoshi Era

• The Chosen Wannabe: Kyoshi grew up believing, like the rest of the world, that her friend Yun was the Avatar, not Kyoshi herself. While the now-dead Yun has become an Unperson among the powerful, Kyoshi has yet to earn the trust of the wider public as the Avatar. Additionally, a lot of Yun's diplomatic actions as Avatar are now null and void, leaving some political affairs unstable.
• Evil Matriarch: Lady Huazo, who was the late Fire Lord's Mistress and was the driving force behind her son's attempt to seize the throne.
• Gangster Land: Due to mismanagement and the aftermath of a large criminal uprising, the Earth Kingdom is in large parts under the control of various criminal groups collectively known as daofei ^note even the Avatar herself is a member of one . Whether they are Just Like Robin Hood, Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters or engage in Totalitarian Gangsterism depends on the specific group.
• Meaningful Rename: Somewhat Exaggerated with the remnants of the Yellow Necks, who have rebranded as the Autum Bloom Society, only to be defeated again. The group has since reformed as The Triad of the Golden Wing. The Core book actually lampshades this:

"No matter how many times they are defeated, they always seem to come back under some new name."

• Pirate: The so-called Fifth Nation was a giant, multicultural pirate fleet manly operating in the western sea. Their main fleet was destroyed by Kyoshi, but splinter fleets under various commanders remain.
• Pirate Girl:
  • The Fifth Nation's last leader was Tagaka, a powerful and cunning waterbender who inherited the fleet's leadership from her father. After luring (the wrongly identified) Avatar Yun to a Peace Conference meant as a trap, she was defeated by (the wrongly not identified) Avatar Kyoshi and has since been imprisoned under Lake Laogai.
  • One of the more prominent splinter fleets is commanded by Chukagnak, a former Northern Water Tribe healer who refused to Stay in the Kitchen and ran off to become a pirate.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Yellow Necks, a large daofei group who rose in rebellion against the Earth King, widely encouraged its fighters to Rape, Pillage, and Burn their way through the Kingdom.
• Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling: On a national scale with the Water Tribes: The South has suffered for a long time, and the original pirates of the Fifth nation were southern tribesmen driven into piracy by economic decline. The North meanwhile is prospering.
• Succession Crisis: The Fire Nation just went through one (the Camellia-Peony War) right before the start of a Kyoshi era campaign, where the sitting Fire Lord defeated and imprisoned his half-brother.
• Used to Be More Social: The Air Nomads are increasingly isolationist in this era, after political repercussions surrounding Avatar Kyoshi's identification, growing banditry in the areas surrounding their temples and the loss of some important spiritual sites.

The Roku Era

• Ambition Is Evil: Fire Lord Sozin has only just begun Slowly Slipping Into Evil, but he's already embraced an aggressive policy of consolidating power, started the trend of dragon hunting, seized the Fire & Air Center of Learning and launched nationalistic propaganda in order to break the power of the Fire Nation's nobility.
• The Chessmaster: Earth King Jialun may seem like a ruler trapped within the Earth Kingdom's Vast Bureaucracy, but he is actually a cunning, yet petty man pulling the strings in the background while slowly amassing greater and greater power.
• The Dragon Slayer: Fire Lord Sozin has only just started to promote the hunting of dragons, yet it's already gaining popularity with the nobility.
• Defector from Decadence:
  • The Guiding Wind - an order of renegade Air Nomads - would consider themselves these. They reject the mainstream Air Nomads' willingness to associate with the rulers and elites of other nations on the basis that it's pulling them away from achieving spiritual enlightenment.
  • The Fire Nation features a number of young nobles who've taken to the more peaceful and less materialistic ways of the Air Nomads. Perhaps the most prominent of these is Princess Zeisan, Sozin's sister, who seeks to both renounce her titles and wealth, and get her family removed from power.
• Foregone Conclusion: Avatar Roku and Princess Zeisan seek to prevent worldwide war and depose the Fire Nation Royal Family, respectively. Anyone who's familiar with Avatar: The Last Airbender will know that canonically, neither one ultimately succeeds.
• Politically-Active Princess: A major player in Fire Nation politics is Princess Zeisan, Fire Lord Sozin's non-bending, chi-blocking sister trying to stem the tide of her family's growing corruption.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: The ‘‘Guiding Wind‘‘ is a small order of Air Nomads who split off from the temples, who they view as mired in corruption. They want autonomy over their lives as well as to undermine the power of ruling elites.
• Rich Kid Turned Social Activist: The Guiding Wind has a sizable following among young Fire Nation nobles, spearheaded by Princess Zeisan. Some of their followers even sponsored the Fire & Air Center of Learning in order to further spread Air Nomad philosophy, until Fire Lord Sozin seized it.

The Hundred Year War Era

• Crapsack World: This is probably the Darkest Hour of all the playable settings: The Air Nomads have been exterminated, the Avatar is missing, the Southern Water Tribe has been reduced to a number of small, struggling villages, the Earth Kingdom has lost its southern lands and the Fire Nation has been culturally and politically corrupted into The Empire. This is represented by the fact that the era's icon in the book is not the current Avatar, but Fire Lord Ozai himself.
• Defector from Decadence: What the book recommends as a backstory for a Fire Nation character in this era, seeing as PCs are meant to be heroic.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Fire Lord Ozai, who sits at the center of the Fire Nation's brutality. However, he can't be fought if one adheres to canon.
• Puppet King: Earth King Kuei isn't even listed as an important NPC, as he is merely a puppet of Long Feng.
• Right Hand Versus Left Hand: A possible quest-hook listed for the era are the various rivalries between different Fire Nation officers, that may even result in an Enemy Mine with the players.
• War Is Hell: A possible theme for a campaign set during this era.

The Aang Era

• A World Half Full: Following on from the previous Era and the events that ended it. The world's still feeling the effects of the Hundred Year War, but Avatar Aang has returned and started rebuilding the Air Nomads through the Air Acolytes, Ozai has been deposed and replaced as Fire Lord by his far more benevolent son Zuko, and both the Earth Kingdom and Southern Water Tribe are starting to recover from the destruction caused by the Fire Nation. The Southern Water Tribe even finds itself with a chance to catch up to the rest of the world in development, due to the discovery of oil in its territory.
• Good Running Evil: Fire Lord Zuko still struggles to balance his nation's interests with his own desire for atonement, although he has proven to be an able ruler.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Although Azula maintains leadership over her Fire Warriors, it soon transpires that she does not have the absolute control over them that she had with Mai and Ty Lee. As a result, they often tend to act out independently without Azula's immediate approval.
• Praetorian Guard: The Kyoshi Warriors (now including Ty Lee) briefly served as Fire Lord Zuko's Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards, and have since served in various different positions, such as training Cranefish Town's policeforce.
• Series Continuity Error: Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide has a number of statements for the era's NPC Legends that don't really mesh with what happened in canon:
  • Azula's goal is listed as being to depose Zuko and rule as Fire Lord. This is pretty much the exact opposite of her stated characterization in Smoke and Shadow, where she claims to be trying to corrupt Zuko into a tyrannical Fire Lord, having given up on obtaining the position herself, although it is possible this is the excuse she gives her cohorts. Azula and The Spirit Temple rectifies this by explaining that deep down even Azula herself doen't really know what she wants; she genuinely believes herself the last truly fit Fire Lord, yet simultaneously still tries to shape Zuko into a better one.
  • Katara is said to have convinced Pakku to teach her waterbending with her determination and potential despite losing her fight with him. In truth, Pakku was still dismissive of Katara after he defeated her, and only came around when he recognized Katara's necklace as the one he had made for Kanna, and realized that his sexism had driven away the love of his life.
  • Suki is mentioned to have helped rescue "several prisoners who played key roles in ending the war" from the Boiling Rock Prison. In actuality, the only prisoners who escaped the Boiling Rock besides her were Hakoda and Chit Sang, neither of whom were shown to have any significant role in the remainder of the animated series. One could argue that Zuko - who very much did play a large role in the war's end- counts since he was technically also a prisoner there for a day, but that's still only one prisoner that fits the bill as opposed to several.
• Super Supremacist: The bending supremacist movement from Imbalance. Although their biggest uprising has been quelled, a lot of people still harbor the sentiments.

The Korra Era

• Earn Your Happy Ending: After spending much of its history impoverished compared to the rest of the world, being outright devastated in the Hundred Year War and enduring a military occupation only a couple of years ago, the Southern Water Tribe is now the largest it's ever been, and its people have used their past lessons in hardship to adapt and overcome well in the modern era, with a number of them becoming international business success stories a la Varrick.
• Out of the Closet, Into the Fire: A suggested threat and challenge for the Water Tribes here is queer members being inspired by Korra and Asami to come out and be open about their sexuality, and subsequently risking hostility from the traditionalists among their people - who generally don't disapprove of non-hetero relations but prefer them to be kept under wraps.
• Refusal of the Call: Some of the people who gained airbending via harmonic convergence refuse to be trained in their new abilities or join the new Air Nation. This can lead to the dangers of them either not being able to control their new powers, or misusing them for malicious or selfish purposes.
• The Remnant: Both the Red Lotus and the Earth Empire - the villain factions from the third and fourth seasons of Legend of Korra - still have members out in the world.
• Sugar Bowl: Downplayed, as there are still problems that need to be dealt with, but the world of Korra's time is outright rosy compared to the last two eras. The leaders of the world's nations are all Reasonable Authority Figures, the Air Nomads have been reborn as the Air Nation thanks to Harmonic Convergence, and the Southern Water Tribe is outright thriving now. The only place not doing quite so well is the Earth Kingdom, which has been through the misrule of Earth Queen Hou-Ting, the anarchy that followed her assassination and the tyranny of Kuvira and the Earth Empire, but they at least have a chance to start recovering now.